Spectroscopy nanosecond

The mechanism and dynamics of photoinduced charge separation and charge recombination have been investigated in synthetic DNA hairpins possessing donor and acceptor stilbenes (stilbene-4,4 -dicarboxylic acid, bis(3-hydroxypropyl)amide of stilbene-4,4 -dicarboxylic acid, bis(2-hydroxyethyl)stilbene 4,4 -diether) (Figure 11.1) using femtosecond broadband pump-probe spectroscopy, nanosecond transient absorption spectroscopy, and picosecond fluorescence decay measurements [11]. Nanosecond time-resolved spectra of stilbenes attached to DNA are shown in Figure 11.4. 

Rate constants for interaction of triplet excited states of cyclic enones with alkenes were first reported by Schuster et al. > > using transient absorption spectroscopy (nanosecond flash photolysis). The rate constants were obtained from the relationship (Xx)" = ( o) + (alkene), where Xq is the limiting triplet hfetime of the enone at a given concentration in the absence of alkene. The decay of enone triplet absorption at 280 nm could be conveniently followed upon excitation of the enones (cyclopentenone [CP], 3-methylcyclohexenone [3-MCH], testosterone acetate [TA], and BNEN [4] were aU studied]) in acetonitrile and cyclohexane at 355 nm using the third harmonic of a Nd YAG laser. In aU cases, triplet decays were clearly first order. Quantum efficiencies for capture of enone triplets by alkenes (O,.) are given by fc x (alkene) using the experimentally determined values of and Xq,... 

Typical singlet lifetimes are measured in nanoseconds while triplet lifetimes of organic molecules in rigid solutions are usually measured in milliseconds or even seconds. In liquid media where drfifiision is rapid the triplet states are usually quenched, often by tire nearly iibiqitoiis molecular oxygen. Because of that, phosphorescence is seldom observed in liquid solutions. In the spectroscopy of molecules the tenn fluorescence is now usually used to refer to emission from an excited singlet state and phosphorescence to emission from a triplet state, regardless of the actual lifetimes. 

Pibel C D, Sirota E, Brenner J and Dai H L 1998 Nanosecond time-resolved FTIR emission spectroscopy monitoring the energy distribution of highly vibrationally excited molecules during collisional deactivation J. Chem. Phys. 108 1297-300... 

The vibrationally excited states of H2-OH have enough energy to decay either to H2 and OH or to cross the barrier to reaction. Time-dependent experiments have been carried out to monitor the non-reactive decay (to H2 + OH), which occurs on a timescale of microseconds for H2-OH but nanoseconds for D2-OH [52, 58]. Analogous experiments have also been carried out for complexes in which the H2 vibration is excited [59]. The reactive decay products have not yet been detected, but it is probably only a matter of time. Even if it proves impossible for H2-OH, there are plenty of other pre-reactive complexes that can be produced. There is little doubt that the spectroscopy of such species will be a rich source of infonnation on reactive potential energy surfaces in the fairly near future. 

Hofrichter J, Sommer J H, Henry E R and Eaton W A 1983 Nanosecond absorption spectroscopy of haemoglobin Proc. Natl Acad. Scl. USA 80 2235-9... 

Yuzawa T, Kate C, George M W and Hamaguchi H O 1994 Nanosecond time-resolved infrared spectroscopy with a dispersive scanning spectrometer Appl. Spectrosc. 48 684-90... 

Varotsis C and Babcock G T 1993 Nanosecond time-resolved resonance Raman spectroscopy/Mef/rods Enzymol. 226 409-31... 

Chen E, Goidbeck R A and Kiiger D S 1997 Nanosecond time-resoived spectroscopy of biomoiecuiar processes Annu. Rev. Biophys. Biomoi. Stmct. 26 325-53... 

Transient species, existing for periods of time of the order of a microsecond (lO s) or a nanosecond (10 s), may be produced by photolysis using far-ultraviolet radiation. Electronic spectroscopy is one of the most sensitive methods for detecting such species, whether they are produced in the solid, liquid or gas phase, but a special technique, that of flash photolysis devised by Norrish and Porter in 1949, is necessary. 

Different analytical techniques are used for detection of the elemental composition of the solid samples. The simplest is direct detection of emission from the plasma of the ablated material formed above a sample surface. This technique is generally referred to as LIBS or LIPS (laser induced breakdown/plasma spectroscopy). Strong continuous background radiation from the hot plasma plume does not enable detection of atomic and ionic lines of specific elements during the first few hundred nanoseconds of plasma evolution. One can achieve a reasonable signal-to-noise ra-... 

Luminescence lifetime spectroscopy. In addition to the nanosecond lifetime measurements that are now rather routine, lifetime measurements on a femtosecond time scale are being attained with the intensity correlation method (124), which is an indirect technique for investigating the dynamics of excited states in the time frame of the laser pulse itself. The sample is excited with two laser pulse trains of equal amplitude and frequencies nl and n2 and the time-integrated luminescence at the difference frequency (nl - n2 ) is measured as a function of the relative pulse delay. Hochstrasser (125) has measured inertial motions of rotating molecules in condensed phases on time scales shorter than the collision time, allowing insight into relaxation processes following molecular collisions. 

Since there are a large number of different experimental laser and detection systems that can be used for time-resolved resonance Raman experiments, we shall only focus our attention here on two common types of methods that are typically used to investigate chemical reactions. We shall first describe typical nanosecond TR spectroscopy instrumentation that can obtain spectra of intermediates from several nanoseconds to millisecond time scales by employing electronic control of the pnmp and probe laser systems to vary the time-delay between the pnmp and probe pnlses. We then describe typical ultrafast TR spectroscopy instrumentation that can be used to examine intermediates from the picosecond to several nanosecond time scales by controlling the optical path length difference between the pump and probe laser pulses. In some reaction systems, it is useful to utilize both types of laser systems to study the chemical reaction and intermediates of interest from the picosecond to the microsecond or millisecond time-scales. 

Although very detailed, fundamental information is available from ultrafast TRIR methods, significant expertise in femtosecond/picosecond spectroscopy is required to conduct such experiments. TRIR spectroscopy on the nanosecond or slower timescale is a more straightforward experiment. Here, mainly two alternatives exist step-scan FTIR spectroscopy and conventional pump-probe dispersive TRIR spectroscopy, each with their own strengths and weaknesses. Commercial instruments for each of these approaches are currently available. 

Strand cleavage studies have provided relative rate constants for hole transport versus the rate constant for the initial chemical event leading to strand cleavage [18-20]. However, they do not provide absolute rate constants for hole transport processes. Several years ago we introduced a method based on femtosecond time-resolved transient-absorption spectroscopy for investigating the dynamics of charge separation and charge recombination in synthetic DNA hairpins [21, 22]. Recently, we have found that extensions of this method into the nanosecond and microsecond time domains permit investigation of the dynamics of hole transport from a primary hole... 

Nanosecond flash kinetic spectroscopy was also carried out on 2-hydroxy benzophenone and the copolymer (11). No transients could be detected in the nanosecond time scale, suggesting that the ground state enol [S (lb) in scheme 1] has a lifetime less than 1 x 10 9 sec. These results strongly imply that processes (3) and (4) are responsible for the deactivation of singlet energy in these systems. A small, non zero triplet yield is postulated in the copolymer both to account for the photodegradation data and the transient spectral data. Triplet... 

Ware WR, Lee SK, Brant GJ, Chow PP (1970) Nanosecond time-resolved emission spectroscopy spectral shifts due to solvent-solute relaxation. J Chem Phys 54 4729 1737... 

Ware WR, Chow PP, Lee SK (1968) Time-resolved nanosecond emission spectroscopy spectral shifts due to solvent-solutes relaxation. Chem Phys Lett 2(6) 356-358... 

Because of the underlying photophysics, fluorescence lifetimes are intrinsically short, usually on the order of a few nanoseconds. Detection systems with a high timing resolution are thus required to resolve and quantify the fluorescence decays. Developments in electronics and detector technology have resulted in sophisticated and easy to use equipment with a high time resolution. Fluorescence lifetime spectroscopy has become a popular tool in the past decades, and reliable commercial instrumentation is readily available. 

The first laser Raman spectra were inherently time-resolved (although no dynamical processes were actually studied) by virtue of the pulsed excitation source (ruby laser) and the simultaneous detection of all Raman frequencies by photographic spectroscopy. The advent of the scanning double monochromator, while a great advance for c.w. spectroscopy, spelled the temporary end of time resolution in Raman spectroscopy. The time-resolved techniques began to be revitalized in 1968 when Bridoux and Delhaye (16) adapted television detectors (analogous to, but faster, more convenient, and more sensitive than, photographic film) to Raman spectroscopy. The advent of the resonance Raman effect provided the sensitivity required to detect the Raman spectra of intrinsically dilute, short-lived chemical species. The development of time-resolved resonance Raman (TR ) techniques (17) in our laboratories and by others (18) has led to the routine TR observation of nanosecond-lived transients (19) and isolated observations of picosecond-timescale events by TR (20-22). A specific example of a TR study will be discussed in a later section. 

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